Special Reports

Hello and welcome to part 1-2 of the Power Induced Design Power Supply Design Web seminar, brought to you by Power Electronics News. In this session we'll look at the three basic DC to DC converter topologies in more detail. We'll also examine the flyback converter, and some of t...

This series of tutorials explains in-depth design steps for the buck and the boost topology DC-DC switching regulators, supplemented by dedicated sessions on PCB layout and signal edge control for EMI that apply to all switching regulators. This tutorials series is split into 15 ...

For the longest time, most of the attention in engineering was (and a lot still is) directed to a great extent to the digital parts of electronic design and the related intelligent subsystems. Power, at best, was given a space on the board to populate with a supply that met the s...

One of the criticisms of the term “Internet of Things” is that it is too damn broad. It was expected and predicted that the various application areas involved would become sub-cultures within the IoT, and industrial systems have come out strongly as one of those areas. The sp...

Thirty years ago, Siemens ran a series of ads promoting computer-based systems for industrial applications using posters by a then-famous German cartoonist that made fun of corporations and how they performed industrial tasks like mechanical drafting, manufacturing measurement, a...

When it comes to the performance of mission-critical devices, such as medical products or factory equipment, it’s no secret that accuracy and reliability are key success factors. Whether it’s an automatic external defibrillator (AED) for a heart attack victim or a pressure tr...

The Internet of Things (IoT) is widely lambasted as an acronym by many in the industry for reasons varying from inappropriateness to inadequacy. The reality is that the term is both of those things, yet neither, because the real issue is that the IoT space is so huge that it requ...

If it’s not a robot or machine tool, chances are that your Internet of Things project is (or incorporates) a remote sensor node. It will use miniaturized batteries to power itself. The goal of energy harvesting in IoT projects, ideally, is to eliminate batteries altogether. Mor...

The Batteryuniversity is a DAkkS-accredited laboratory for battery and environmental testing located in Karlstein, Germany. It offers a wide spectrum of quality and safety tests on cells and batteries including development accompanying testing (vibration, overcharge, nail penetra...

Power is a universal aspect of our industry (and the world), as there is no such thing as electronics without electricity (biotech notwithstanding). A significant amount of our ability to create advanced electronics lies in our ability to manage and deliver power exactly where ne...

Security is an issue as old as property and will exist as long as people have things to protect. Once upon a time, in order to secure a facility, one only had to worry about physical dangers. Put up a fence, buy a few dogs, and hire a couple of people with guns to walk around and...

August is always a tough month to fill the pages, so it’s always fun to take the time to ruminate on engineering issues that one would not worry about when deadlines are screaming at you. One way that I relax is by collecting antique gadgets. They help me understand technology ...

As we trudge through the heat of August, there are still a few news items out there during this notoriously slow news season. However, technology and business development never really stop. One way to drum up interest is by promoting a given application space. Contin...

This has been an interesting week for power electronics if you are into motorsports, as Mercedes announced it was dropping the German DTM touring master’s competitive series and shifting those and other resources to Formula E. Porsche, who has already announced it is dropping o...

Summer is in full bloom, and one’s mind turns to leisure and the outdoors. An engineering mind may turn to all the electronics used in the outdoors and in harsh environments that have only come available because of the convergence of device integration, advanced packaging, and ...

There has been a lot of activity in the components space this week, with some interesting new products launched. In the area of power semiconductors, Infineon (www.infineon.com) expanded their IGBT module selection with the EconoPIM 3 package, with a current rating increased to 1...

An AspenCore / Paul O’Shea Special Edition. Power Electronics News dedicates this AspenCore Automotive Electronics Special Report to Paul O’Shea, who retired in July after more than 30 years in the business. Industrialized culture is replete with sto...

The Smart Grid concept is not new and there have been thousands of forums, talks, and papers given about it. I moderated a couple forums nearly a decade ago and really, the important points made then are still the important points now. We understood that the Smart Grid would be c...

The overall market for AC/DC and DC/DC commercial switch mode power supplies (C-SMPS), which excludes consumers and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), is estimated to be in a range of 22 to 25 billion US Dollars. This level has been stable for more than five years and from an ...

Try to imagine what it would be like not to have access to energy, and specifically electrical energy. That movement of charged particles through a wire, which comes from a primary source such as fossil fuels and enables everything we do from providing mechanical advantage, opera...

This series of tutorials explains in-depth design steps for the buck
and the boost topology DC-DC switching regulators, supplemented by
dedicated sessions on PCB layout and signal edge control for EMI that
apply to all switching regulators. This tutorials series is split into
15 parts and provides details, hints and tips which are useful even to
the most veteran power supply designers. Within this series we will
issue a new tutorial every week. The tutorial series has started on
February 12, 2018. More...

The data sheet forms the essential basis for the selection of the
right resistor. This white paper uses realistic calculation examples to
clearly illustrate how a data sheet can be used to choose the
appropriate resistor and what information is important. More...

The areas historically served by
silicon devices have in recent years been taken over more often by Wide
Band Gap Devices. We are facing higher switching frequency and higher
operating temperatures. Wide Band Gap Semiconductors can accommodate
these increasing demands by permitting better performance than today’s
silicon. In this virtual conference with more than 20 on-demand
webinars leading wide band gap companies together with companies from
the test & measurement area provide deep insights into designing
with GaN and SiC.More...

Silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs are
making major inroads into solar inverters. Engineers are keen to
achieve high efficiency across the entire load range. SiC MOSFETs' low
on-state resistance and low switching losses support those efforts,
especially when the focus is on achieving high efficiency at light
loads. But latest-generation SiC MOSFETs have their limitations. This
webinar zooms in for a closer look at these drawbacks and puts forward
solutions to resolve the issues at hand. More...

Within external and
internal power supplies working with 230VAC noise filtering is
mandatory to
comply with European and global EMI reduction rules. When it comes to
filtering
through chokes the magnetic material plays a major role to comply with
that.
The webinar will show you which components will help you to reduce size
and
weight while keeping the performance of filtering on the same level and
you
will learn how to choose the right magnetic filter. More...

The Editor’s Perspective

One of the criticisms of the term “Internet of Things” is that it is too damn broad. It was expected and predicted that the various application areas involved would become sub-cultures within the IoT, and industrial systems have come out strongly as one of those areas. The spirit behind Industry 4.